More food idioms — this time dessert-themed! (Unless otherwise noted, quotations are taken from The Dictionary of Clichés.)

Easy as Pie

“Not difficult; requiring little or no effort or expertise.”

This is an American simile from the nineteenth or early twentieth century. It refers to the ease of eating pie rather than making it! Phrase Finder points out some other instances of “pie” being used to denote something pleasant or easy, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) (“polite as pie”) and Sporting Life (May 1886) (“As for stealing second and third, it’s like eating pie”).

Pie in the Sky

“The promise of the good life in a future that never arrives.”

The origin of this phrase is easy to verify. It comes from a rallying song called “The Preacher or the Slave” (1911), written by Joe Hill for the International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”). “You will eat, bye and bye, in the glorious land above the sky! Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.” Phrase Finder points out that “The Preacher or the Slave” is a parody of the Salvation Army hymn “In the Sweet Bye and Bye.”

Eat Humble Pie

“To acknowledge an embarrassing error and humiliatingly abase oneself.”

“Humble pie” is a corruption or pun on umble-pie, the umbles being the heart, liver, and entrails of deer (now called offal). According to Phrase Finder “umbles” began as “numbles” in the 14th century and “umble pie” appeared in print in the 17th century. Phrase Finder also states that the adjective “humble” originated separately, but “[t]he similarity of the sound of the words, and the fact that umble pie was often eaten by those of humble situation could easily have been the reason for ‘eat humble pie’ to have come to have its current idiomatic meaning.”

It’s a Piece of Cake

“It is laughably simple; it’s easily accomplished.”

This probably originated in the 19th century with the term cakewalk, “an African-American promenading contest in which couples who devised the most intricate or appealing steps won a cake as a prize.” Cakewalk later referred to a dance based on the promenade and then became slang for “something stylish, pleasurable, and easy to do.” By the 1930s the term had apparently morphed into “a piece of cake.” Phrase Finder states that this term is first found in print in Primrose Path (1936) by American poet and humorist Ogden Nash: “Her picture’s in the papers now, And life’s a piece of cake.”

Eat One’s Cake and Have It Too

“To have it both ways; to spend something and still possess it.”

This phrase has a long history and was included in John Heywood’s collection of proverbs in 1546: “Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?” The meaning is self-explanatory!

Nuttier Than a Fruitcake

“Crazy; eccentric.”

This American phrase plays on the colloquial meaning of “nutty” as insane, which dates to the 19th century. Interestingly, it also lead to the term “fruitcake” being used for an eccentric person.